There are many choices for home heating. There's the traditional fireplace, with hearth and mantle, and there are space heaters for small areas. Then there's the central gas-fired or electric furnace. But the pellet stove is becoming more popular due to its efficiency and the fact that the fuel was scrap to begin with.
How a Pellet Stove Works

A pellet stove or furnace is a bit more complicated than an electric or gas furnace or a fireplace. An auger, a kind of large screw, is turned by an electric motor and slowly turns turns, carrying the pellets from a hopper which stores the pellets.

This deposits the pellet fuel onto the hot fire at a consistent rate. Then an electric fan blows a jet of air across the fire. This maintains a preset temperature and allows the pellet fuel to burn evenly and efficiently. Then another fan blows the heated air, which has been warmed by passing through a heat exchanger into the home.

There are exhaust gases produced which are vented from the stove by another fan through an exhaust pipe. This exhaust pipe is narrower and much cheaper to install than a conventional chimney. Whether to use this home heating technology or not depends on individual circumstances
Advantages of Heating the Home With a Pellet Stove

Pellet furnaces burn so cleanly that even the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gives them a pass when it comes to emissions testing. They burn fuel that so efficiently that they're sometimes considered to be the cleanest-burning of all residential heating appliances that burn solid fuel.Kelly Smith